Sunday, August 25, 2013

Russian law banning gay propaganda to minors

Twenty-five years ago, my sister was trying to convince me to vote for Michael Dukakis. I pointed out to her that Dukakis was a gay hater. He banned gay foster parents in Massachusetts---they were dragging children out of homes with gay foster parents and, in some cases, foster parents who refused to tell the state whether they were gay or not. He publicly stated that he would never give an executive order banning discrimination against gays in state jobs and that he wouldn't do so as president. The scum running his campaign were gloating about gays picketing him----it would get him the anti-gay vote and the gays would vote for him anyway.

This had no effect on her support for Dukakis.

A few years later, she supported Clinton who instituted "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military and signed the Defense of Marriage Act. She supported Al Gore with his gay-hating right-wing Orthodox Jewish running mate. She supported same-sex marriage opponent Barack Obama.

But now she's outraged over Russia and their law against propaganda of non-traditional sex aimed at minors. Violators can be fined up to $1,500.

She would be attacking Putin no matter what he did. Russia is offering some slight challenge to US imperialism and is therefore being vilified by the US and the lapdog press.

The Russian law has the support of a large majority of Russians and opposition to it from outside Russia isn't helping Russian gays any. Why would they want their movement associated with imperialism, with countries vilifying and threatening Russia?

It's something Russian gay rights groups are going to have to fight themselves. Support from the US won't do anything for them,

Until the last ten or fifteen years, American gay groups stayed as far away from teenagers as they could. They didn't want anyone accusing them of trying to recruit young people. They were trying to prove they weren't a threat to kids. Look at old gay rights materials and see how often the term "consenting adults" appears. It's worked extremely well in the United States. People don't care that much what adults do with other adults, so once the public stopped thinking gays were a threat to kids, opposition to gay rights began to vanish.

Russian activists would be well advised to use the same tactic there. But I doubt these Russia-haters in America and Europe will let them.

Twenty years ago, Americans were horrified that gay men were demanding that they be allowed in the Boy Scouts. They wanted to know why gays were so keen on being scout masters. Public opinion in the US has changed a lot, but why wouldn't Russians feel the same way?

I'm not in favor of the Russian law, but Russian gays would be well-advised to use the same tactics that have been so successful in the U.S.